Rivalry games provide thrills, clarity as Black Hills grabs two-game 2A EvCo advantage

A natural rivalry combined with high stakes has made for compelling basketball the last couple of times Tumwater High School has crossed I-5 for a boys basketball game at Black Hills.

Last season, the Thunderbirds’ Peyton Peterson sank a pair of free throws in the final seconds to hand the 2A Evergreen Conference champion Wolves their only loss of the 2018-19 league season, 61-60.

Friday night, after grabbing a pair of crucial offensive rebounds on teammates’ missed foul shots, it was Black Hills’ Avery Armin knocking down a pair of free throws to help ice a 59-56 victory in the newly minted Pioneer Hardwood Classic.

The win, combined with a decisive 68-48 triumph over W.F. West earlier in the week, left Black Hills in clear possession of first with a 6-0 record (12-4 overall). The T-Birds (13-3) and Bearcats (11-5) are tied for second at 4-2 apiece in EvCo play.

The remainder of the schedule is interesting, though Black Hills – which has only one game left with its pursuers, on Feb. 7 in the rematch at Tumwater – seems to have an edge. The Wolves, however, play their final three games on the road.

Tumwater, on the other hand, finishes with three consecutive home games, including W.F. West and Black Hills the final week. The Bearcats don’t play Black Hills again, so have not even a part of their championship fate in their own hands.

Meanwhile, Friday’s drama at the foul line in the final moments for Black Hills – both misses and makes – wasn’t a surprise. Free throw shooting hasn’t been a strength, not even for eventual hero Armin.

He’s missed some big free throws. But, according to Wolves’ coach Jeff Gallagher, he’s been diligent about trying to fix that particular flaw in his game.

“Avery struggled shooting free throws our first five or six games,” said Gallagher. “Every single night when I’d leave practice, he’d still be in here shooting.”

Not that Armin didn’t feel pressure.

“I took a step back to try to get calm,” he said.

The beginning of the game hinted at the excitement to come as the teams traded three-pointer after three-pointer. The lead changed hands again and again during the first quarter. Weston Ainsworth, who led Black Hills with 14 points, was the focal point for the Wolves, but several hit early threes.

Camden Oram, Tumwater’s 6-2 junior guard, hit the first three of his seven 3-pointers from the exact same spot, two feet beyond the arc at the top of the key. In the second half he cashed one in from 30 feet. He would finish with a game high 23 points.

The first quarter shootout surprised players and coaches alike.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Armin, who finished with eight points, said. “It was fun to watch, fun to do.”

TUMWATER GIRLS BOUNCE BACK FROM LONE DEFEAT

Back on Jan. 4, Tumwater’s Natalie Sumrok missed a non-league game with Sequim for a family event and Cassie Kaufman stepped in to play strong defense on the Wolves’ star post. Tumwater won. Last week, guard Isabella Lund was ill and the T-Birds (15-1 overall) lost their first game of the season, to W.F. West in overtime.

But the box score of the loss to the Bearcats showed sophomore Lily McCauley, who missed all of last season with an injury, scoring 11 points and senior Olivia Bailon, reluctant to shoot earlier, finishing with seven points.

Friday night, McCauley scored 12 points and Bailon again had seven as visiting Tumwater rolled to a 59-36 rout of rival Black Hills in the girls edition of the cross-freeway rivalry. The win left Tumwater, 5-1 in the Class 2A Evergreen Conference, tied for first with W.F. West, while Black Hills (12-4 overall and No. 11 in the RPI) is alone in third at 4-2.

“We’ve always encouraged Liv to shoot. She just had to come into her own in her timing,” said Tumwater coach Robin Johnson. “She’s growing in confidence. It changes our team dynamic when she’s as aggressive as she was tonight.”

Tumwater raced out to a 30-13 lead at halftime and would later lead by as many as 27, despite once again playing with just eight in uniform because of an ankle injury to freshman guard Janiesse Armstrong.

Sumrok led the T-Birds with 14 points, while Aubrey Amendala added 12 to go with McCauley and Bailon’s production.

Guards Megan River, with 12, and Mia Flores, with 10, led the Wolves in scoring but Black Hills couldn’t take advantage of its superior size as the smallish T-Birds found gaps to grab many an offensive rebound.

Meanwhile, W.F. West kept its share of the lead by beating Black Hills, 42-25, Wednesday and crushing rival Centralia, 68-19, on Friday. Annika Waring scored 11 points against the Tigers to move past the 700 mark for her career and Maggie Vadala added to her career record assist total, passing the 300 mark.

CAPITAL GIRLS STAY UNBEATEN, BOYS FALL INTO SECOND PLACE

Capital’s girls swept the Lacey schools last week, beating Timberline on the road, 47-31, and North Thurston at home, 53-44, to remain unbeaten and in first place in the 3A South Sound Conference.

The Cougars will be tested this week, hosting fourth place Peninsula on Wednesday before traveling to Gig Harbor for the Tides’ Senior Night on Friday.

Gig Harbor is 9-1 in league, just a game behind 10-0 Capital. When the teams met in Olympia on January 8, the Cougars prevailed, 51-40, but the Tides have won their last five games.

On the boys side, Capital remains the top local team in the SSC, but dropped out of first after a 50-40 home loss to Timberline on Wednesday. Alex Wright led Timberline with 16 points in that one, while Logan Campau added 12.

Also of note in 3A was Yelm’s continued boys revival. The Tornados have their first league streak in a while going after sweeping two .500-or-better teams, Shelton, 74-67, and Peninsula, 60-48.

OLYMPIA BOYS NEED HELP TO CATCH PUYALLUP

A 61-55 road loss at Curtis on Thursday dropped Olympia to 8-4 in 4A South Puget Sound League play with four games to go.

Though the Bears are still in second place with a game remaining at league leader Puyallup – who they beat easily the first meeting -- on Friday, Olympia is now two games behind the Vikings (10-2 in league).

The Bears need either Rogers or South Kitsap to beat Puyallup while they sweep Emerald Ridge, the Vikings, Bellarmine and Graham-Kapowsin to finish in a tie for the SPSL title.

NINE LOCAL TEAMS IN TOP 16s OF RPI RANKINGS

With the state tournament comprised of 16 teams in each classification and the WIAA’s Ratings Power Index used to seed teams that qualify through district play, here are the local teams ranked 16th or higher as of Monday:

Boys 2B: Northwest Christian (13-2), 7th.

Boys 2A: Black Hills (12-4), 6th; Tumwater (13-3), 8th; W.F. West (11-5), 16th.

Girls 2B: Rainier (13-4), 13th.

Girls 2A: Tumwater (15-1), 5th; W.F. West (12-4), 7th; Black Hills (12-4), 12th.

Girls 3A: Capital (13-3), 13th.

This story was originally published January 28, 2020 at 10:04 AM.